Catholic church panel clears 5 priests in abuse case

ALBANY — The Albany Roman Catholic Diocese announced Tuesday that an internal review board has “cleared” five priests, one of whom is dead, of sexual abuse allegations made by a former altar boy who said the men raped him beginning in the mid-1980s.
The decision comes in response to a complaint filed last year by Michael DeSantis, 34, a married father of five who lives in Saratoga County. DeSantis alleged four priests had abused him starting when he was about 9 years old. He filed an additional complaint earlier this year against the Rev. Carl Urban, 72, who was a pastor at Church of St. Adalbert in Schenectady.
Other priests accused of abuse by DeSantis were Alan Jupin, 73; Louis Douglas, 82, who died earlier this year in a Delaware nursing home; Donald Ophals, 77; and John Bertolucci, 73, who was removed from ministry in 2002 for unrelated sexual abuse charges.
It’s at least the second time three of the priests — Jupin, Douglas and Ophals — have been cleared of sexual abuse allegations by the Albany diocese. The Albany County district attorney’s office learned of the new allegations last year, but said they could not pursue the case because the statute of limitations prohibits prosecution. There was no police investigation.
“The Albany Roman Catholic Diocese’s Sexual Misconduct Review Board has concluded there are no reasonable grounds to substantiate allegations of sexual misconduct brought by one individual against five priests,” the diocese said in a statement. “The review board reached the conclusion based on the results of a seven-month investigation conducted by a former FBI agent and supervised by a former New York State Court of Appeals judge and prosecutor.”
DeSantis, who has not retained a lawyer or sought compensation from the diocese, called it “the biggest injustice I’ve had to go through.”
“I definitely feel betrayed again by the Catholic Church, as I did as a young boy,” DeSantis said Tuesday. “I wasn’t just some guy who had nothing else to do but sit there and make up a story about five priests; that’s not me. I will continue to stand behind my truth. I will not rest until they are held accountable.”
Douglas faced abuse allegations in two other cases. A Schenectady man accused Douglas of sexually abusing him in the 1970s, and two women whose children attended St. Catherine of Siena in 1992 complained Douglas had abused children at the parish. The diocese dismissed both claims.
There is no record that Urban ever faced prior sexual abuse allegations involving children. But a former Schenectady detective, Lincoln Grimm, told the Times Union several months ago that Urban had solicited him for sex in the late 1980s in an area near Schenectady City Hall frequented by males who engaged in sex. The diocese in August said Urban received “professional counseling” and returned to ministry because the encounters did not involve minors.Read the full story here.